Thursday, May 31, 2007

how handwriting and distance to school cause pygmalion effects

Not only selling and buying a house influences my ability to think; I came across this article about how handwriting skill influences test results. It is deeply troubling that handwriting may have a huge effect on marks at school. This is as unfortunate as the fact that travelling distance is also of influence on school results. I've not yet found the reference to this on internet. I've heard parents complain on the Dutch radio.
What are teachers measuring?
But more importantly, how can schools allieviate these influences?

thinking processor busy: no thinking available today

My house is more or less ready for sale. I realize that my house selling is influencing my thinking. It is as if the thinking processor is using up a large part of my thinking. There seems to be not much left for creative thoughts.
No creative thoughts available today.
Sorry.
Well, if you really want me to show the contents of my head, this maybe and this or this or this. But right now also this.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Puzzle sunday (14)

Houses and schools, puzzles and tools, scaffolds and posts, maths and hosts that's what this blog's all about, and here is todays puzzle for you to check out.
I know, I've had a hard day and I'm sublimating.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

british tool for script-writing

I ought to clear more space in my computer for this tool that looks useful for writing scripts for television and movies. And then? What kind of a script would I write? an educational one? Would I use it for my children? Very possible.

this school works

My son who goes to another school is doing very well. That school works with the development of vital aspects of development, planning, design, thinking, evaluating; everyday there is creation, working together and alone, learning in books and doing. Children work at their own development. This means both individual and cooperative activities. It works!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

better education; icerocket trends

Icerocket statistics look a bit like scaffolds, don't they? According to icerocket trend, there were about 4600 - 4900 posts on education and learning every day in the past three months, against only 20 on scaffolding. I'm guessing this means scaffolding is not yet very known to many who write about education. That's a real pitty, because it is a method that builds children, adolescents and adults and we know already, that there is a relationship between the development of skills and frustration. If we want to do things better, more scaffolding techniques is one of the ways.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Puzzle sunday (13)

For some people the regular IQ-tests are more difficult than difficult IQ-test questions.

Monday, May 14, 2007

I love puzzles

I'm writing this post especially for Chris (and myself because my memory needs external backup). I searched for sites about wooden puzzles, because I think they represent what we need: beauty, natural materials, relaxation through directed attention, enjoying problem solving strategy development.
Puzzles can be boxes. Human psychology would like to unravel the mysteries of the box (symbolic for the brain) , Pandora opened the box, and we enjoy presents in boxes.
On the same site, the Alcatraz puzzle seems like a real challenge.
Also follow on the links on that site. One in particular I should put in my blogroll.
There is a mechanical puzzle competition to encourage new designs. So beautiful.

unplugged scaffolding

Because the birthday of one of the children is comming up, I've searched and found a few books and games that you might like. Usually I give something for their birthday that is a developmental challenge for the child at that time.
The books are in Dutch but the games might be interesting. I'm going to give a link to a dutch site and try to find an English counterpart. Thinkfun, Dutch site that delivers pretty good games and a site that describes abstract games are among my favorite. Wooden puzzle challenges can be difficult even for very bright children. That's good!

I love difficult.

Friday, May 11, 2007

underachievement; effectivity praise for effort is reinforced?

Don't praise your child for their intelligence, but do praise them for their effort says this article on praising intelligent children describing one of the origins of underachievement. I would say there is also a reward-angle to this. The reward is bigger when effort is emphasised as contributing to the successful solution of a problem than when there is no relation to effort. This means there is a reinforcement of the effect reported in the article.

Puzzle sunday (12)

Riddle today on chez Odile. I've tried solving it and found an alternative oviously wrong solution... Maybe if you insist I'll share it with you...
From housesearch to wordsearch?

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Scaffolding, multitasking and house-improvement

Scaffolding, multitasking and house-improvement is my actual life. My father built and rabuilt 3 scaffolds in one morning (5 meters high) (how many inches is that?). Not virtual but touchable scaffolds. At the same time I saw how he built virtual scaffolds for me, for my children and even for my husband. Our family benefitted from his visit at multiple levels. I see where my youngst and oldest get there energy from. "I've got magical energy!" said the youngst. It is true. My oldest is recuperating from everything. She starts feeling better about herself. It's such a fine line between giving support and increasing dependent behavior. Art is doing the scaffolding, science is thinking how to and when.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

underachievement: neurology or psychology?

Neurology is very interesting and is like a painting of reality to me. Especially if it represents reality in detail. Even better are descriptions that move in time like models or machines or those where you can manipulate and see what happens. But that's it. It is not what happens inside the box or is it? If we look at underachievement, is what happens the activity that stops in the brain, or is this an accurate and interesting show of what events you can observe from the outside? It does show that it is imperative to get enough experience in failure not to shut down when it happens. Hmm... Thanks neurologists for this support.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

city or village-life?

I have moved many times and moving usually means new friends, neighbors and life-changes. We have to choose between living in the city center next door to the schools or in a small village nearby, with the possibility of a garden. That's a tough choice. The city-life will mean theater, bookshops, shopping and other things important to us, but also keeping my smallest one in close boundaries - a highly energetic boy that likes to discover the world and who loves nature - inside. Will that work? The village-life will mean space in and around the house, woods, but always have to use transportation.

*new* item at Chez Odile is the metachat where Creatives and Thinkers meet.

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